Companies are increasingly launching to learn. Companies such as GE are increasingly prototyping products in order to test them in the marketplace. AirBNB and Uber completely changed their business models after they launched based on consumer reception. This model of beta testing, popularized by companies like Microsoft and Google, is becoming the new norm in consumer products and services. Nicholas discusses how your company or your startup can learn from these organizations, and bring products to market more rapidly and constructively.

1. LAUNCH:
PROTOTYPING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
23 May 2018 | UX Strategy Chicago
Nicholas Paredes

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
| 2LAUNCH : PROTOTYPING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
Introductions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Why Launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Flight Check. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Measures?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Appendices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

3. INTRODUCTIONS
| 3LAUNCH: PROTOTYPING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
VOKAL
Transforming businesses with impact-
ful digital experiences.
We are an digital product and innovation agency, composed
of skilled researchers, strategists, creatives, and technolo-
gists. We draw on our passion and experience to design and
build the right digital solution to meet your needs.
BY THE NUMBERS
TEAM
MEMBERS
55
YEARS IN
BUSINESS
9
WORKSHOPS
IN 2018
15+
Vokal works with the
world’s best brands.

4. INTRODUCTIONS
| 4LAUNCH: PROTOTYPING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
FINDING OPPORTUNITIES
Vokal works with clients throughout
the innovation process.
Vokal helps companies both identify new product opportuni-
ties as well as deliver them to market. Our deep design and de-
velopment experience helps you deliver innovation.
WORKSHOPS
Focus
DESIGN
Define
DELIVER
Execute
VALIDATE
Learn
CLIENTS
AMA
Chamberlain
Tyson
CLIENTS
Bosch
GFS
Chamberlain
CLIENTS
Bosch
GFS
Chamberlain
CLIENTS
Bosch
GFS
Chamberlain

5. INTRODUCTIONS
| 5LAUNCH: PROTOTYPING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
NICHOLAS
Nicholas Paredes is an experience
designer and entrepreneur.
He has led design sprints for BMW, led Lean design teams for
Grainger, and brought award winning mobile experiences to
market for Walgreens. Nicholas has also worked on projects for
companies and startups across e-commerce, financial, insur-
ance, and connected products sectors. He is currently the
Experience Director at Vokal in Chicago, works on an on-de-
mand beauty startup, and teaches at the University of Chicago
and CEDIM in Mexico.
Nicholas Paredes is a graduate of the Master of Product
Design and Development Management program at Northwest-
ern University. He studied at the Institute of Design at IIT in
Chicago and in the Advanced Workshops at the Basel School of
Design in Switzerland. Nicholas is an avid gardener, cook, and
yoga practitioner.

6. 2 WHY LAUNCH?
| 6LAUNCH: PROTOTYPING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
Companies are increasingly launching
to learn.
Companies such as GE are increasingly prototyping products in order to
test them in the marketplace. AirBNB and Uber completely changed their
business models after they launched based on consumer reception. This
model of beta testing, popularized by companies like Microsoft and Goo-
gle, is becoming the new norm in consumer products and services.
How can your company or your startup can learn from these organizations,
and bring products to market more rapidly and constructively?

7. WHY LAUNCH?
| 7LAUNCH: PROTOTYPING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
NEW COMPLEXITIES
Products, services, and data blend to
create deep connections with people.
Amazon Key and Ring empower delivery
services to the interior of the home.
Amazon Services will install the products
and bring other services to your home.
New technologies offer new opportunities
to serve customers wherever they are.
Technology presents many opportunities to solve problems.
Connected-homes, self-driving cars, drones, AI, AR, and sen-
sors will make it possible to implement infinite solutions to
problems. Our mission as entre- or intra-preneurs however,
is to invest our recources wisely in solving problems that
people need and desire.
The Process of Design Squiggle
by Damien Newman

8. WHY LAUNCH?
| 8LAUNCH: PROTOTYPING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
NEW EXPERIENCES
Emotional experiences make for
powerful products.
Here, Jamie Siminoff unsuccessfully pitches
DoorBot on SharkTank.
What is desirable? Certainly, filling a need is a potential prod-
uct opportunity. But, a deeper connection to customers is
necessary to creating strong connections to your brand and
company. Ring created a funtionally desirable product. It
also created tools for connecting to neighbors. This deeper
connection provides a very difficult barrier to entry for com-
petitors. Amazon paid between $1.2-1.8B for the startup.
FEASIBLE
VIABLE
DESIRABLE
Nest has many products and now many
competitors who are functionally equal.

9. Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model
System of Systems Model by Michael Porter
and James E. Heppelmann
Apple and Google compete and
complement each other in mobile.
WHY LAUNCH?
| 9LAUNCH: PROTOTYPING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
NEW STRATEGIES
Companies are increasingly partners as
well as competitors in their industries.
Increasingly, companies such have partners in one are of
the business, such as cloud data, and are competing with
the same organization in another. This new mix of opportuni-
ties presents new challenges in identifying a strategy. The idea
that startegy is iterative prototyping is helpful in understand-
ing how we might evolve business strategy rather than set it
in stone, before we understand the entire opportunity space.

10. WHY LAUNCH?
| 10LAUNCH: PROTOTYPING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
NEW CUSTOMER VALUE
“The idea is easy. The
search and iteration for
a value proposition and
business model is hard.”
This quote by Alexander Osterwalder,
demonstrates highlights the challenge
of identifying value. Companies
are increasingly diversifying across
categories to achieve success.
Apple is increasingly a services
company. Amazon produces devices.
Google is buidling self-driving cars.
Understanding how customer needs
are changing helps us find new
opportunities to provide value. Value
can be found across the business, as
the 10 Types of Innovation framework
(right demonstrates.
Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas

11. 3 FLIGHT CHECK
| 11DOCUMENT TITLE
“By January 2010 we did our first test run
in New York. We had three cars cruising the
SOHO/Chelsea/Union Square areas and had
a few people using the system. The core
crew was Garrett, myself, and Oscar Salazar,
Garrett’s friend from Grad school who
helped build the prototype in early 2009.”
Travis Kalanick

12. FLIGHT CHECK
| 12DOCUMENT TITLE
TEN STEPS TO LAUNCH
“The refined prototype can be tested again, modified,
tested again and so on. And with each iteration the tests
move further into the realm of action and the marketplace.
Aspects of the strategy can be tested by actually doing
things with customers — and gaining more understanding
to hone and refine the strategy with each iteration.”
Roger Martin
From the first Uber pitch deck
The objective is to create a testable
hypothesis that we can validate in
market to gauge customer demand, and
to learn. Learning is our ultimate goal.

13. FLIGHT CHECK : STEP 1
| 13DOCUMENT TITLE
FIND A NEED
The founders of Uber needed a car in
Paris. Tony Fadell needed to control
the temperature in his vacation home.
We all have needs, and very often it is our personal needs that
drive our ideas. As we work for others, our goal is to be able
to fathom the needs of others. Empathy can be described as
the skill of understanding others’ needs and desires.

14. FLIGHT CHECK : STEP 2
| 14DOCUMENT TITLE
DESCRIBE THE CUSTOMER
• Ubercab – people in urban areas without cars
• AirBedandBreakfast – people with rooms to rent
• GetBetty – professional women with no time AND
stylists who need to make extra money
• Researching with customers helps us define them

15. FLIGHT CHECK : STEP 3
| 15DOCUMENT TITLE
DEFINE THE VALUE
• Uber – customers need service where cabs aren’t
available
• AirBNB – people wanted to make extra money renting
rooms
• GetBetty – a desire to look and feel their best

16. FLIGHT CHECK : STEP 4
| 16DOCUMENT TITLE
BUILD TOUCHPOINTS
• Ubercab – SMS
• AirBedandBreakfast – website
• GetBetty – Square Scheduling
• Get a minimum product to market to learn more

17. FLIGHT CHECK : STEP 5
| 17DOCUMENT TITLE
SET YOUR PRICE
• Ubercab – compatible to cab (assuming cabs could be
used)
• Uber – compatible to limo (cabs were too complicated)
• Uber X – Lower prices (competition from Lyft)
• GetBetty – $20/hour for stylists

18. FLIGHT CHECK : STEP 6
| 18DOCUMENT TITLE
IDENTIFY A TEST MARKET
• Uber – San Francisco cab customers
• AirBNB – IDSA conference attendees
• GetBetty – urban residential high-rise
• A small, well-defined market helps a team focus

19. FLIGHT CHECK : STEP 7
| 19DOCUMENT TITLE
MARKET TO CUSTOMERS
• Uber – direct sales to drivers and operators
• AirBNB – Google ads tied to Craigslist
• GetBetty – Facebook ads and launch events

20. FLIGHT CHECK : STEP 8
| 20DOCUMENT TITLE
SELL SOMETHING
• Go to your customers
• Call your customers
• Sell at local markets
• Give away your product

21. FLIGHT CHECK : STEP 9
| 21DOCUMENT TITLE
LEARN FROM MISTAKES
• Who responded?
• Did you ask them about your product?
• Were you marketing to customers?
• Anybody ask about your product again?

22. FLIGHT CHECK : STEP 10
| 22DOCUMENT TITLE
ITERATE CONTINUOUSLY
• Respond to changes in customer personas and needs
• Focus on most viable touchpoint
• Revise pricing and markets
• Build new prototype and launch again

23. 3 MEASURES
| 23DOCUMENT TITLE
It is estimated that 75 percent of venture-
backed business efforts fail to deliver a
return to investors.
Our goal must be to measure both financial success as well as execution
on the tasks we must accomplish to launch an internal or external start-
up. Many companies invest in opportunities without a clear understand-
ing of the risks.

24. MEASURES
| 24DOCUMENT TITLE
WHY STARTUPS FAIL
1. Lack of focus
2. Lack of motivation, commitment and passion
3. Too much pride, resulting in an unwillingness to see
or listen
4. Taking advice from the wrong people
5. Lacking good mentorship
6. Lack of general and domain-specific business
knowledge: finance, operations, and marketing
7. Raising too much money too soon

25. 4 APPENDIX
| 25DOCUMENT TITLE
“By removing the guesswork and emotion,
this fact-based and methodical approach
allows entrepreneurs/management and
institutional investors to come together and
collectively work toward the same goal of
improved business execution, which equals
improved shareholder value.”
Faisal Hoque

26. APPENDIX
DOCUMENT TITLE
The Uber pitch deck from 2008
https://medium.com/@gc/the-beginning-of-uber-7fb17e544851
The Story Behind Ring
https://blog.ring.com/2014/09/26/scrappy-dedicated-humbled-proud-and-excited-the-histo-
ry-behind-ring/
How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition
https://hbr.org/2014/11/how-smart-connected-products-are-transforming-competition
How to get a company off the ground
http://review.chicagobooth.edu/entrepreneurship/2018/article/how-get-company-ground
Why Some Startups Succeed (and Why Most Fail)
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288769
The Exclusive Inside Story Of Ring: From ‘Shark Tank’ Reject To Amazon’s Latest Acquisition
https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2018/02/27/amazon-is-buying-ring-the-pioneer-of-
the-video-doorbell-for-1-billion/
Why Most Venture-Backed Companies Fail
https://www.fastcompany.com/3003827/why-most-venture-backed-companies-fail
REFERENCES